


Day 2: Explosion

by evilwriter37



Series: Whumptober 2019 [2]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Blood, Explosion, Gen, Whump, Wounded, hiccup!whump, se06e03 Chain of Command
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 05:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20861243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Caught by surprise in an explosion caused by the Dragon Flyers, Hiccup is badly wounded.





	Day 2: Explosion

The explosion happened so fast. One instant, Hiccup was adjusting his prosthetic, and the next he was thrown ten feet through the air and onto his stomach, armor and clothing on his back burned away, skin scorched. He didn’t move, too stunned to, and maybe too hurt. There was pain where there hadn’t been an instant ago, pain on his back, his arms, and the backs of his legs. There was worse pain in his right shoulder, and for now he just laid there. He realized they were under attack, that there was fire burning not too far from him, and that he had to move, but he was dazed, the explosion still ringing in his ears. All he could do was lay there and moan. When he opened his eyes he saw fire and smoke.

“Hiccup!” That voice was familiar, Atali’s. There was a hand on one of his own.

“Yeah?” he got out hoarsely, letting her know that he was alive.

“Can you move?” she asked. “We have to get you out of here.”

Hiccup let her pull him up. He leaned on her heavily. Now that he was up, he was more aware of his body. He had burns along his back and his legs and some on his arms. There were small splinters of wood in him, but in his right shoulder, going straight through and out the other side, was a large piece of it. He stared at it in horror, at the blood,  _ his _ blood dripping down, his face going white.

“Come on, Hiccup.”

With Atali’s help, they made it to cover behind another building. The Flyers hadn’t fired again, probably assuming that the blast had killed him. He realized that it very well could have. If he’d taken this piece of wood through his heart or his back and not his shoulder…

But he was alive. Alive and hurting. He groaned, sitting down. He wished to lean his back against the side of the building but knew that that would hurt too much. Atali was standing over him, face splotched with soot, frowning at the wood in his shoulder.

“We have to leave it in for now,” she told him. “Until we can get you to a healer, or you could bleed out.”

Hiccup nodded. “So, where do we go?”

Atali looked around, scanned the skies. “I thought Minden and Snotlout were supposed to be patrolling.” There was a battle going on, but no Hookfang, no Snotlout.

“They were,” Hiccup said. He was trying to will his adrenaline to kick in, to shake off the pain, but he couldn’t. He could just watch the sky and the ongoing battle and blasts of fire, his right ear still ringing.

“Are you okay to move?” Atali asked. “We can retrieve Toothless and-”

Retrieving Toothless didn’t need to happen. He must have seen and heard the explosion, then tracked Hiccup’s scent here, as he was running around the side of the building, teeth bared, ready to fight. His face fell when he saw Hiccup, and he padded over, gave his shoulder a careful sniff.

“Hey, bud.” Hiccup painfully lifted his left hand and rubbed Toothless on the nose.

“We’ll go to a cave on the far side of the island,” Atali said. “The Wingmaidens are meant to gather there if they can’t hold the village.” She looked to the sky again, expression grim. “And they can’t.”

Hiccup managed to push himself to his feet without any help, but then he leaned on Toothless. He knew he couldn’t fly him. They would have to walk. His legs hurt. He was lucky his prosthetic was still on. “Let’s move,” he said.

  
  


The journey to the cave was arduous and painful. He rode on Toothless’ back, flat on his stomach, but each jostle still hurt. Once there, Hiccup found Snotlout and Minden, along with the other Wingmaidens. Atali went in search of one of her healers for him.

“Hiccup, what happened?” Snotlout cried, jogging over. His eyes were wide with worry.

Hiccup was not happy with him. “Got caught in an explosion,” he said weakly, mustering his anger through the pain. “Which could have been avoided if  _ you  _ had been where you were supposed to be!”

Minden came over, put a hand on Snotlout’s arm. “Hiccup, it’s my fault. There was a fire and I called the Wingmaidens to come put it out. Snotlout went with me.”

Hiccup gritted his teeth, unsure of what to say. Pain was throbbing from his shoulder in waves, and he was about ready to close his eyes and succumb to it, let it drag him into unconsciousness.

“Hiccup, this is Freydis,” Atali told him, coming back with a dark-skinned woman beside her. “She’s one of the healers.”

With Atali and Snotlout’s help, Hiccup managed to lay on the cave floor, leaning on his left side to avoid moving the wood in his right shoulder. Freydis was looking over his burns, deemed them not as serious as his shoulder, and began looking at that. A nearby lantern provided light, as did fire from Hookfang. Hiccup was sweating, his burns hot, feeling like he was drowning in heat. His hair was damp.

“I can get this out,” Freydis said, pointing to the wood in his shoulder. “Then I’ll disinfect it and stitch it, alright, Hiccup?”

“Alright.” Hiccup had never had anything like this done without some form of pain suppressant, but they had nothing with them. They had to do it here though, lest he get an infection. This was really going to hurt.

“Snotlout, hold him down,” Freydis directed. “Hiccup, I’m going to pull it out through your back,” she told him, going around to that side. “Someone give him something to bite on.”

He felt his belt coming off, being undone by Atali’s hands, and then it was folded and put into his mouth. Hiccup was frightened, wanted to tell them to just hold it off until they could do all this properly, but he knew he shouldn’t. He had to do this.

Hiccup jolted when Freydis touched the wood, and then she was pulling. Hiccup bit down hard on the belt, screamed as loud as he could through his teeth. It burned and ached and stung like nothing he’d ever felt before, all the different kinds of pain melding together into a giant, agonizing mass. He squeezed his eyes shut, tears coming free.

Hiccup nearly fainted when it came out. Blood gushed freely now, no longer held in place by the wood. Snotlout continued holding him down, and Freydis worked fast. Some form of a disinfectant, probably alcohol, was poured on his wound, and he was screaming again, writhing, fighting against Snotlout’s strong hands. It didn’t matter that they were helping him. All that mattered was the pain. He was entirely lost to it.

The stitching was excruciating, given how deep the wound was. Freydis stitched up the back of his shoulder with practiced hands, not being gentle because it would slow her down and he was bleeding too much. Then she did the front in the same way. At some point the belt had fallen out of Hiccup’s mouth and he was just panting and groaning. He felt lightheaded, weak and dizzy. There was blood coating what was left of his shirt. He didn’t know how it was still clinging to him. 

After that, Hiccup was allowed to lay on his stomach, and he drifted between consciousness and unconsciousness as splinters of wood were pulled out of him. For now, the best they could do for him was pull off the damaged pieces of clothing and bandage the burns. 

Once that was all done, he just laid there, eyes heavily lidded as he watched the Wingmaidens prepare for battle. They were going to go back out there and fight the Flyers without him, and he knew he was an asset to attacks. Toothless had the most powerful and accurate blasts. He got his arms under him, ignoring the twinges of pain, tried getting up.

“Whoa, whoa, Hiccup.” Snotlout put a gentle hand on him, and the extra weight was all it took for Hiccup to go back to the ground. “You’re staying here. Freydis and a few of the warriors will look after you.”

“Why do you care?” Hiccup spat. He was hurting, angry. “This was your fault, Snotlout. If you hadn’t abandoned your post…” He trailed off. If Snotlout hadn’t abandoned his post, he’d be in a very different position right now. He’d be in the air fighting, hopefully unhurt. “You shouldn’t have gone with Minden. The both of you should have followed orders.” It was so clear that the fire had been a diversion to draw them away from the village. Why hadn’t Snotlout seen it? Why had he gone after a woman who seemed to be just as reckless as he was?

“Hiccup, I’m gonna go out there and fight,” Snotlout said. There was hurt on his face, from both Hiccup’s anger and his injury. “I’m gonna make this up to you. We’ll all get out of this okay.”

“Snotlout…” Hiccup didn’t know what to say. He could be recklessly stupid sometimes, but there was no doubt that he had real bravery. His wounds screamed at him as he moved to put his left hand on his arm. “Don’t get hurt.” 


End file.
